With the floodgates for corporate spending in U.S. politics wide open, the job of investigative journalism has never been more crucial. The National Institute on Money in State Politics' searchable database can help you find and build stories.

OpenTheGovernment.org's report notes a steady decrease in secrecy but finds poor marks in other areas, such as declassification backlogs, continued invocation of the "state secrets" privilege, and a high percentage of federal advisory committee meetings closed to the public.

The FBI's effort to inspire confidence by trying to hide the 300-ton, five-story-high, object of national interest might have backfired.

The report includes many lists and maps that allow you to zoom in on specific topical and geographic areas of interest to your audience. Here are some angles to explore, evaluated by watershed.

A leaked "internal draft, not for release" discussion paper contains thoughts on a possible shift toward more conservation — and moving away from BLM's historic pattern of generally emphasizing extraction of natural resources and de-emphasizing conservation of those resources.

Topics of interest to your audience could include agriculture, construction, sewage plant discharges, urban stormwater runoff, industrial sources, concentrated animal feeding operations, hydraulic fracturing used in natural gas extraction, power plant cooling water use, and pesticide infiltration.

The National Response Center, a single call-in facility for the reporting of all kinds of oil and chemicals leaks, spills, and discharges, puts all the data online in a form than can be queried or downloaded.